Typical computer-based environments for the access and management of information have evolved from stand-alone computers, using individual applications and programs, to client-server networks, using shared applications and programs. With stand-alone computers, a user could personalize properties related to the access and management of information to suit the user's needs without considering or affecting users of other computers. For example, a user could change the appearance or format of information that the user accessed and managed from a stand-alone computer without regard to the ability of other computer users to access and manage that information from other stand-alone computers.
However, with the advent of computer networks, such as local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), and the Internet, users often access and manage information using computers, workstations, etc. (“clients”) that interface with a common computing system or device (“server”) that provides pages, documents, programs, applications, etc. that are shared by the users. These client-server networks provide users with the ability to access and manage information from one or more servers for individual, as well as collaborative, purposes. For example, several users may need to access stock market information for individual purposes. Each of these individual purpose users may have an interest in different stock information among the information that is available. In contrast, several other users may need to access stock market information for collaborative purposes. For example, these collaborative purpose users may have common interests in certain stock information to support their collaborative efforts as stockbrokers working for the same company.
In either the example of the individual purpose users or the collaborative purpose users, the users may need to change some of the properties related to the access or management of the stock information. For example, the individual purpose users may need to personalize properties that affect the appearance and type of stock information they each access. The collaborative purpose users may have the need to change the properties of stock information that all of these users access or manage, which may be referred to as customizing the properties. For example, all of the collaborative purpose users may need to access or manage the same type of stock information and to have it appear in the same format. Additionally, the collaborative purpose users may desire to personalize some of the properties of the common stock information that they view to satisfy their individual purposes. Thus, various users in a client-server environment may have the need to personalize and/or customize properties related to information that they access and manage.
Existing approaches to providing the capability to personalize and/or customize properties related to information that is accessed or managed in a client-server environment have limitations and shortcomings. For example, existing approaches typically only provide for individual purpose users to personalize properties in a page (or document) that have been predetermined by the page author or the developer of the application or program that presents the page. In order to make any additional options to personalize properties available under such approaches, the author or developer usually has to significantly revise the software code for the page or application by making manual modifications to it, which is typically costly, time-consuming, and inconvenient to the author/developer and the individual purpose users.
As another example, existing approaches typically do not provide collaborative purpose users with the capability to personalize properties related to information that is accessed or managed by all of these users in a client-server environment. Furthermore, existing approaches typically require a collaborative user to perform complicated manual modifications of software code for a page, document, etc. to customize properties related to information that is accessed or managed by all of these users.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need in the art for computer-based access and management of information that allows a user in a client-server environment to personalize properties related to the access and management of the information without the need for the user to manually modify software code for the page, document, application, program, etc. that contains the information. There is also a need in the art for computer-based access and management of information that allows a user in a client-server environment to personalize properties related to the access and management of information that is accessed and managed by a group of users without affecting the properties that are common to the other users. Finally, there is a need in the art for computer-based access and management of information that allows a user in a client-server environment to customize properties related to the access and management of information that is accessed and managed by a group of users without the need for the user to manually modify software code for the page, document, application, program, etc.